From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Durbin Ward
Durbin Ward
John Durbin Ward and when at home he is most frequently found in
his library . . . .[1]
He attended for two years Miami University in Oxford,
Ohio, one county east of Fayette and across the state line,
then taught school in Warren County and settled there.
He studied law under Judge George J. Smith (1799–1878)
and Thomas Corwin, a Lebanon attorney who later was
Governor of Ohio. After he was admitted to practice, he
was Corwin’s law partner.
In 1845, Ward, a Whig, was elected Warren County’s
seventh Prosecuting Attorney, an office once held by
Governor Corwin. He served from 1846 to 1850. From
1853 to 1854, he represented Warren County in the Fifti-
eth General Assembly, the first held under the new state
constitution adopted in 1851. He served only one two-
year term in the legislature. During that time, he spon-
sored legislation for the state to abandon the unprof-
itable Warren County Canal that connected Lebanon to
sketch by Henry Howe the Miami and Erie Canal at Middletown.
Upon his retirement from the legislature, he opened
Born February 11, 1819(1819-02-11)
a law office in Cincinnati, Ohio, but continued to live at
Augusta, Kentucky
Lebanon. Ward switched to the Democratic Party about
Died May 22, 1886(1886-05-22) (aged 67) this time and was its nominee for Congress in 1856 and
Allegiance United States of America
Attorney General in 1858. (He lost the latter to Republi-
Union can Christopher Wolcott.) In 1860, he supported Illinois
Senator Stephen A. Douglas for President.
Service/branch Union Army
Rank Brevet Brigadier General
Civil War
Battles/wars American Civil War
When President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers
to fight in the Civil War, Ward was the first in his con-
John Durbin Ward (February 11, 1819 – May 22, 1886)
gressional district to enlist. He entered the army as a pri-
was an Ohio lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher, and
vate, declining a commission. He rose to be a major in
American Civil War officer.
the 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and saw action at Mill
Springs, Corinth, Stone River, Hoover’s Gap, and Chicka-
Early life and career mauga. At Chickamauga, his left arm was wounded and
permanently crippled. In November 1865, he was brevet-
Ward was born in Augusta, Kentucky. His mother, Rebec-
ted a brigadier general for his "gallant and meritorious
ca Patterson, named him in honor of the Rev. John Price
conduct at the battle of Chickamauga."
Durbin [2] (1800–1876), a noted Methodist preacher, who
was a school mate of hers.
Around 1823, the family moved to Fayette County, In- Postbellum career
diana, in the southeastern part of that state. Josiah Mor-
After the war ended, President Andrew Johnson named
row, the historian of Warren County, wrote of Ward:
him United States Attorney for the Southern District of
His early opportunities for education were limited,
Ohio. In 1870, he was elected a senator in the General
but such was his thirst for knowledge that he
Assembly.
became an insatiable reader, and, when he was
At Lebanon, Ward founded The Lebanon Patriot, a De-
eighteen years old he had read every book he had
mocratic paper first published on January 16, 1868. War-
ever seen. He has never lost his studious habits,
ren County being ardently Republican, the paper was to
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Durbin Ward
take the place of the previous Democratic paper in the
county, the Democratic Citizen, which was destroyed by a
External links
mob at the outbreak of the Civil War. Ward sold the pa- • "Durbin Ward". Find a Grave.
per to Edward Warwick in the 1870s. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/
fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21011798. Retrieved
2008-10-08.
See also • Reid, Whitelaw (1895). "Durbin Ward". Ohio in the War
• List of American Civil War generals Her Statesmen Generals and Soldiers. 1. Cincinnati: The
Robert Clarke Company. pp. 985–986.
References http://books.google.com/
books?id=EJ94AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA985.
• Dallas R. Bogan. Warren County’s Involvement in the Persondata
Civil War. Franklin, Ohio: The Author, 1991.
Name Ward, Durbin
• Josiah Morrow. The History of Warren County, Ohio.
Chicago: W.H. Beers, 1883. Alternative names
[1] [1] Short description Union Army general
Date of birth February 11, 1819
Further reading Place of birth Augusta, Kentucky
• Ward, Elizabeth Probasco (reprint 2006, original Date of death May 22, 1886
1888). Life, Speeches and Orations of Durbin Ward of Ohio. Place of death
Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 9781428661097.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Durbin_Ward&oldid=455734766"
Categories:
• 1819 births
• 1886 deaths
• American Methodists
• American newspaper publishers (people)
• Miami University alumni
• Ohio lawyers
• Ohio Whigs
• People from Bracken County, Kentucky
• Politicians from Cincinnati, Ohio
• People from Lebanon, Ohio
• People of Ohio in the American Civil War
• Union Army generals
• 19th-century American newspaper founders
• County district attorneys in Ohio
• 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
• Members of the Ohio House of Representatives
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